Some symbols are instantly recognizable as Jewish—the shofar, the Star of David, the menorah.
And it was the latter that for decades served as a guide to Jews driving on Long Island, N.Y., where a 15-foot-tall menorah stood on the grounds of a local day school. When the school closed about a decade ago, the menorah came down as well.
That is until a few weeks ago, when, 40 years after its original dedication, the menorah once again calls out to the community—this time from its new home outside the building that contains the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Academy, a community day school.
“I think this is a terrific opportunity for the Suffolk County Jewish community to have a new home for the menorah, and it’s very fitting that it be at the JCC,” said Adam Bendeson, executive director of the Suffolk Y JCC.
Seeing the menorah in use again was the “fulfillment of a wish I’ve had for 10 years,” said Rabbi Tuvia Teldon, head Chabad-Lubavitch shaliach on Long Island and board director of the Jewish Academy. “When the Hebrew Academy [of Suffolk County] was sold, I felt very bad about the menorah possibly being put in a garbage dump because it had been a symbol of the Jewish community for 30 years.”
So the rabbi went on a mission to try and salvage it, but quickly discovered that the “cost was $18,000 to take it down and store it.”
The fee was simply too prohibitive for Teldon to act on his own, so he began making phone calls. One of them was to a builder friend who put the rabbi in touch with Arnold Marcus, whose father, Max Marcus, had commissioned the menorah back in 1973.
“I called him and said, ‘Mr. Marcus, you don’t know me and I don’t know you, but I would love to save your father’s menorah, which is about to be put into salvage. Is this something you think you can help with?’ ”
Marcus took Teldon’s name and number, and promised to call back the next day.
And to Teldon’s relief, he did.
Marcus made arrangements to have the menorah removed from the closed school’s premises and placed into storage. And every year since, Teldon said, Marcus would call asking when they would do something with it.
“I said, ‘Wait, the time will come,’ ” recalled the rabbi. “And when we negotiated with the JCC [for space in their building], I said, ‘I have this wild idea. I have this menorah that was in front of the Hebrew Academy. Would you be willing to put it up in front of the JCC?’ And the executive director’s answer was ‘Yes, let’s do it.’ ”
Merging Their Efforts
The menorah’s formal dedication on Oct. 13 outside the JCC building also marked the official dedication of the Jewish Academy inside; it moved there in time for the start of the current academic year.
“We are the flagship school of Suffolk County Jewry,” said Teldon. “Now, as the only day school serving this community of 90,000 Jews on Long Island—and given that the JCC was going through a change of leadership—we held discussions and realized it would be in both of our interests to merge our efforts.”
Teldon noted that this was not a simple rental agreement between two Jewish entities, but rather, an integral partnership: “We both feel that for the success of the Jewish community, we must have a strong JCC and a strong Jewish day school.”
The school, which is a member of RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network, currently enrolls some 70 students in kindergarten through seventh grade, and across the religious spectrum from non-observant to Orthodox. An eighth-grade class is expected to be added in time for the next school year.
Indeed, the relocation seems to be paying off. Since the JCC runs a very popular preschool program, some of those parents have already committed to sending their children to the Jewish Academy come September 2014.
“It’s October, and we already have eight children registered for kindergarten for next year, and we haven’t even started our admissions campaign,” stated Teldon.
Likewise, with an elementary school in the building, an entirely new group of children now utilize the JCC’s premises on a daily basis—from the Olympic-size pool to afterschool programs. “Having the Jewish Academy inside the walls of the Suffolk Jewish Community Center adds to the myriad of options families have here at the JCC,” said Bendeson.
Part of the appeal of the nine-year-old academy, in addition to its location, is its reputation for excellence in secular studies—a key element of the school’s vision, given the history of other Jewish schools in the county.
“We live in a community where, unfortunately, three Jewish schools have closed down,” explained Teldon. “In the past, the approach many took was if you want your children to be Jewish, send them to us and we will educate them. The perception was that general studies were secondary. ... We opened in 2004 with the understanding that we have to be the best school in town for Jewish parents to send their children to because we live in an area with excellent, Blue Ribbon schools.”
To that end, the school has taken a very modern and, even groundbreaking, approach to education. For instance, the school has partnered with the bioengineering department at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and created an engineering program for students in grades one through six. The curriculum they have established has been recognized by the National Science Foundation.
Then there’s the law class that will be taught to students in the middle school, in conjunction with nearby Touro Law School; it will culminate with a mock trial presided over by a real judge. Both civil and Jewish law will be taught as part of the class.
It’s this type of forward thinking that’s crucial to making Jewish Academy a stand-out school for the 21st-century child, according to academy officials.
Head of School Rabbi Michoel Druin said “our 70 students and their parents are choosing to pay $10,000 or more because they want their children to be a step ahead of the crowd, and it’s these kinds of activities that bring them here.”
Added Teldon: “I am confident that as the reputation of the school builds up, it will have a major impact on the building of the Jewish community of Suffolk County.”
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